Review – A Detailed Look At MTN’s New Data Plans / Night Plan

Last Updated on 6 October, 2016

So, MTN recently launched new data plans and slashed prices of existing data plans and the internet is talking.

While I have been a loyal user of GLO bis for over a year now as I am able to use it on every of my devices that’s got wireless feature, I usually opt in for Glo’s night plan which cost N200 for 1GB. This is because I tend to spend more time online during the night period than during day time.

Recently, while surfing, watching and downloading videos using the Glo Night plan, I got a notification stating that I’ve used up the data. I was sorta stranded and I had to opt in for MTN’s Night Plan.

I tried subscribing one of MTN’s new night plan packages by dialing *198# but it kept returning an error message. That’s how it’s been for days now.

Interestingly, I logged into my twitter account and I realized a reader had tweeted that post to MTN asking if the plans are available and MTN stated that the plans are currently not available. Same plan that was officially launched by the company barely 48 hours before they closed it which is synonymous with when they launched a weekend plan and after the first week, they discontinued it.

@eekabadcrane Y’ello, so sorry about this. Please disregard these bundles for now as they are not available. (1/2)

Moving on, I decided to opt in for the earlier unveiled night plan costing N25 and MTN says there is a data cap of N500. Validity period is between 12:00am to 4:00am. At least, that’s what MTN said even in their confirmation text.

BTW, Adex recently posted a comment stating that the MTN N25 Night plan isn’t browsing. Guess that sorta encouraged me to bring up this review. Adex, I hope you are reading this. The MTN Night plan still works. Just read on though.

After successful subscription, I decided to kick off by doing a speed test. I also compared it to that of my glo and below are the results.

Next was browsing proper. I didn’t watched any video neither did I do much surfing outside the normal sites I’d visit to read. Next up, I decided to download a movie and I was kinda attracted to a movie with a size of 247MB.

Download had began and guess what, the downloading meter didn’t go pass 170MB. That means, it couldn’t even download a 247MB file completely. Surfing had also stopped connecting and that was when it dawned on me that MTN’s acclaimed 500MB had exhausted.

So, if you are wondering if truly, the night plan is actually 500MB, No it isn’t. I am guessing its somewhere around 250MB (at most). Of course, I didn’t set up any tool to measure data usage but for the fact that I didn’t watch any video online or did much surfing before eventually downloading a movie, there is no way I would have exhausted 300MB.

Another thing is, MTN doesn’t notify you if your subscription has been exhausted. Neither do they send any text to inform you about how much volume you have used as seen on GLO. Re-subscribing doesn’t also work as you’d get a message stating you have an active plan. But when you choose to check your data balance by sending 2 to 131, MTN says you have no active plan. Are they trying to play with my intelligence?

Next day, I decided to re-subscribe to the plan again and that went through flawlessly. Browsing kicked off. At 3:30am, browsing had stopped. Now, that’s another point. Validity period is actually till 3:30am and not 4:00am as MTN stated.

These points confirmed other reports I have been seeing online lately in regards the data plans newly rolled out by MTN. MTN acclaimed data plans are not exactly what they say they are. They are just a fraction of what MTN claims. Secondly, the time frame for the night browsing is actually 3:30am and not 4:00am.

So, there you have it. For me, the speed is cool. N250MB for N25 night browsing is honestly not bad. It’s still a cool deal but MTN should try and be more transparent instead of going through some shady route.